YUVRAJ Singh has some connection with Number 12. Sample this trivia; born on 12th December in room number 12 of the PGI Hospital, Chandigarh which is in Sector 12 at 12 pm, Yuvraj Singh was quite a heavy baby – more than four kg — when I took him in my arms on that day. As he grew, he worked hard on his strength and power hitting. He was convinced that only a fit body could make the talent produce performances. At Rajkot he exhibited what he was capable of — well timed powerful wristy shots. He gave England team the ‘Garfield Sobers dose’ that made them look pale. And on the slow and dusty Indore pitch with three down for 29, Yuvraj showed that he could also use the situation to his advantage in batting and bowling. The rise and fall of Yuvraj Singh is a story which gives enough fodder to all, to write and talk about his exploits. In a society that tends to lap up all the nonsensical off the field speculative stuff without realising the adverse effect it will have on a person, Yuvraj is reconciled to the fact that unless he silences the critics with some scintillating knocks and breathtaking fielding, he will always be known as the bad boy of Indian cricket. Once he was captaincy material. Now he isn’t even the vice-captain of the Indian team. When in mood, moody players destroy the opponents. When not in mood, they destroy themselves. This is an apt description of Yuvraj Singh. Such players are not slaves of technique. Their technique is a slave of their emotional state. To Yuvraj Singh, the point of impact while playing shot is what matters. Technical gyan doesn’t interest him. Such players are never consistent. His inconsistency may have prompted Kapil Dev and Dilip Vengsarkar to question his focus on the game but highly temperamental cricketers can’t be expected to stay focussed all the time. Temperamental cricketers expect others to understand them. They need to be handled. They have to be needled at the right time the way Kapil Dev and Vengsarkar did by saying that Yuvi needs to be focussed. This must have really angered him but hasn’t it worked? Chaavi(provocation) as we say in Mumbai cricket. CHAAVI MARO WASN’T IT before the India-Pakistan Test match at the Wankhede Stadium in 1979, that captain of the Indian team Gavaskar ridiculed Kapil Dev’s batsmanship in an article? Again the ‘chaavi’ and Kapil played a gem of a knock. These are the tricks Mumbaikars use of getting the best out of a player. Sandeep Patil never ever bothered about the views others have about his approach to the game but the media pressure was less compared to the scrutiny Yuvraj is undergoing. Like Yuvraj, Sandeep Patil was a match winner. The state of the pitch and form of a bowler didn’t matter when Patil was in full flow. At Indore, Yuvraj quickly sensed it was a different ball game. The greatness of a batsman is in reading the pitch and situations. He did it admirably. It could be an exaggeration to compare Yuvraj with Sobers but watch the innings of 254 of Sobers at Melbourne beating fielders on the point boundary against the fastest bowler Dennis Lillee in the 1972 series between the Rest Of The World and Australia and Yuvraj comes the closest to him in terms of power and elegance. Sobers hit six sixes off Malcolm Nash in a county game, Yuvraj did that to Stuart Broad in the T20 World Championship . LEAVE HIM ALONE TO BE fair to Yuvraj, he wasn’t handled properly. He was used as a spare-wheel in Test cricket. From opening the innings to number six, he was tried, tested and dumped. He wasn’t allowed to settle down. Yet at Bangalore he played a swashbuckling knock of 169 against Pakistan. The ball kept beating the field with a geometrical precision. That knock ought to have put an end to the debate as to who should be the successor of Sourav Ganguly. It didn’t. He was a victim of a subjective assessment. Don Bradman said he saw similarity between him and Tendulkar. Garfield Sobers surely would see glimpses of himself when he watches Yuvraj. Let’s leave Yuvraj alone for a few months and see how he shines with his batting in the next few years. A genius knows nothing till his art flows for the enjoyment of others. More than anyone, it’s the national selection committee that has to realise that such sheer genius is not born everyday in Indian cricket.